So I'm a Spider So What? Volume 11

Thus, we guided the monster into changing its course to avoid the smoke.

The phoenix shows itself to people relatively easily compared with other
legendary-class monsters, so there is a fair amount of research on it.

In other words, there is information about what the phoenix avoids, and we
were able to use it to drive the phoenix away.

However, there is a downside to this method. The source of the smell that the
phoenix dislikes so much is a very valuable material.

Namely: fire dragon dung.

The phoenix is a fire monster, too, but apparently, they get along very poorly,
so it will never make its nest in a place where fire dragons dwell.

That’s why we burned fire dragon dung to produce the scent of fire dragons,
causing the phoenix to avoid it.

But the fire dragon is at minimum an S-rank monster.

Some particularly strong fire dragons have even been deemed legendary-
class, the same as the phoenix itself.

On top of that, fire dragons usually travel in flocks and live in treacherous
areas like active volcanos.

Harvesting their dung is at least as dangerous as collecting a phoenix feather,
maybe even more so.

This valuable dung is used when the phoenix travels toward a large
population center. If there’s too many people to evacuate quickly, it’s safer to
change the phoenix’s course instead.

It’s common knowledge that large towns often keep fire dragon dung on hand
in case of such an emergency.

That’s where we were able to borrow a very small amount of that dragon
dung, which we burned to produce this smoke.

Normally, it’s the kind of valuable material that should be preserved, but
using a tiny amount of it like this isn’t enough to be a problem.

Of course, this tiny amount alone wouldn’t produce enough smoke to ward

off the phoenix, so we used Wind Magic to gather it all up and focus it close to
the phoenix’s nose.

“I guess I’d expect no less of the number one apprentice of the world’s
strongest mage.”

Jeskan sounds impressed.
Unfortunately, I can’t even respond to him right now.
Magic spells normally have a set form and amount of power.
Master is the first person in the world to change that.

Instead of simply “producing” magic, you have to “control” it.
Considering that no one else in history had ever accomplished such a feat, it’s
obviously not easy.
Normally, the most a Wind Magic spell can do is push wind in a particular
direction.
Using it to collect smoke, and then carry it to the phoenix’s nose, is incredibly
difficult.

If I lose focus for even a second, the spell will collapse, and the smoke will
likely disperse.

It’s not a flashy spell by any means, yet in a way, it’s more difficult than even
invoking massive magic.

“Great! The phoenix is changing its course. A little more to the right.”
Following Hyrince’s instructions, I manipulate the smoke to guide the phoenix
farther from us.

At this rate, we should be able to keep it away entirely.
But just as I think we’ve succeeded, the wind suddenly blows.
“Ah?!”
It’s not magic—just a natural gust of wind.

But it pushes the smoke right into the phoenix’s face.
“SKREEEEE!”

The phoenix lets out a high-pitched shriek.
“Oh no!”

The phoenix doesn’t attack humans unprovoked and is said to have a gentler
temperament than most legendary-class monsters.

But still, you can’t let your guard down around it.
Using smoke to guide it away wasn’t enough to provoke it to attack us, but it
looks like throwing the smoke right into its face is another story.
The phoenix is coming this way—with obvious anger in its eyes.

“Jeskan! Take Yaana and Hawkin and run!” I shout immediately.
Jeskan obeys at once, scooping up Yaana and Hawkin under his arms and
sprinting away.
“Wait! No!”
Yaana tries to resist, but Jeskan doesn’t slow down.

He knows perfectly well what happens if you try to fight a legendary-class
monster.

The phoenix spreads its wings, and I run out in front of it.
I have to buy time for the others to get away.
It’s me the monster is after.

I dragged the others into this stupid plan, so I have to make sure I’m the only
one who suffers the consequences!

The phoenix flaps its wings, sending a whirl of flames toward me.
I produce my Light Magic barrier.
But even with as much magic power as I could put into it, it burns away like
paper.

“Shield!”
In the last moment before my barrier dissipates completely, Hyrince jumps in
front of me with his shield at the ready.

“Hyrince!”
My shout is drowned out by the roar of flames.
The attack lasts only a second.
But in that second, I can clearly see the flames burning through Hyrince’s
shield and searing his body.
Since Hyrince protected me, I suffered only light burns from the attack.
The flames whirl away, and my vision clears.
Before my eyes, I see Hyrince—his entire body covered in burns yet still
standing with his shield raised.
The single attack seems to have satisfied the phoenix; it gives us one last look,
then flaps away.
A moment later, Hyrince slumps over and falls to the ground.
“Hyrince!”
I sprint up to my fallen friend, quickly beating away the flames still licking his
body.
“Hyrince?!” I hear Yaana cry out behind me.
Jeskan is running back toward us with her over his shoulder.
“Yaana! Please heal him!”
“Right away!”
Yaana uses Healing Magic.
I follow suit, trying to soothe the wounds that cover Hyrince’s body.
“Hyrince! Don’t you die on me!”
I keep using Healing Magic with every last ounce of my strength.
Hawkin produces a vial from his pocket and pours the liquid over Hyrince: a
healing potion.
“Nnngh!”
“Hyrince!”

Finally, Hyrince coughs and groans.
“…I’m not gonna die. ’Cause if I do, it’d be your turn next, right?”
His voice is faint but steady.
“That was so reckless…”
“You’re one to talk.”
Hyrince narrowly escaped death.
As if to reward his efforts, a single phoenix feather flutters down from the sky,
landing right next to him.
Although Hyrince survived, we determined that we couldn’t keep following
the phoenix any longer, so we decided to leave it to the others to take care of
things.
When they saw Hyrince’s condition, the villagers allowed us to stay the night.
We laid Hyrince down to get some rest in the room they gave us.
Before long, the man who’d prompted us to stay and deal with the phoenix by
refusing to evacuate unless we protected his house comes to check on us.
When he sees Hyrince’s battered state, his face turns pale.
“I-is this…because of me?”
“…Your house is safe, just like we promised.”
“I…I—I built that house with my wife, who passed away, so…”
“Well, we protected it,” Hyrince grunts curtly.
“…Thank you so much!”
The man bows his head and hurries out of the room.
“See? This is what we get for putting our lives on the line for selfish people
like that guy. Are you satisfied, Julius?”
Hyrince looks at me seriously.
I’m sure he’s trying to tell me that I should stop blindly offering to help
anyone and everyone I meet.

And in a way, he’s saying that this is my fault, too.

We agreed to that man’s request because of my own selfish insistence.

If we’d dragged him away from the house and made him evacuate by force,
we wouldn’t have been put in such danger, and Hyrince wouldn’t have nearly
died.

So Hyrince is right to be angry.

I think he’s especially angry with me for being reckless, too.

And yet…even so, if I was put in the same situation again, I think I would make
the same choice.

“I’m sorry, Hyrince. But I still want to keep reaching out my hand to people in
need. I feel bad for making you go along with my selfishness, though.”

“Selfishness, huh? Listen. I don’t think you can call that selfishness. It’s people
like that guy who are selfish. I’d call you softhearted, that’s what.”

Hyrince sighs irritably.

“He was selfish, I know. But he did thank us, and he seemed to feel guilty that
you got hurt. I think this incident must have made him realize how selfish he
was. So I think the gratitude he feels toward us today will be passed on in the
form of kindness to someone else tomorrow. I really do believe that.”

“…Seriously, how soft can you get?”

Hyrince closes his eyes, as if to say he’s given up.

“Hyrince, I’m sorry.”

“…It’s fine. I knew what I was getting into.” He smiles wanly. “But I just want
to say that people aren’t as good as you want them to be. For all we know,
helping that guy today might just make him assume that he’ll always get help
whenever he wants it. There are people who are grateful when you save them,
and some of them might try to learn from your example and pay it forward. But
that’s not gonna apply to everyone. At least remember that much.”

“…Okay.”

I’m sure Hyrince is right.

Some people won’t change, no matter how hard I try.
Just like the criminals from the human-trafficking organization.

And there are probably people who will consider my help convenient and
nothing more.

As sad as it is, I don’t have the power to change everyone’s hearts.
I softly touch my scarf.
My sadness must be evident in my expression, because Hyrince offers me
some comfort.

“Don’t make that face. I’m following you because I like that soft side of yours.
And that’s never gonna change.”

His words are an indirect promise that he’ll always stay by my side.
To be honest, part of me feared that after making him do something so
reckless, Hyrince wouldn’t want to follow me anymore.
So I’m thrilled, and relieved, to know that he’s going to stay with me.

“You being reckless isn’t anything new, right? These injuries just prove that I
couldn’t keep up with your craziness.”

“That’s not true.”
The phoenix’s flames might have easily killed even me if they’d hit me
directly.
The only reason I’m practically unharmed is because Hyrince covered me with
his own body.

If anything, I’m the one who couldn’t keep up with Hyrince, since he had to
protect me.

“Hyrince, I really am sorry. And thank you.”
“Sure.”
I’m sorry for making you do something so crazy.

And thank you for staying by my side anyway.
“Oh, I know. Here.”

I hold out to Hyrince the phoenix feather I picked up.
“What’s this?”

“You should carry it.”
Hyrince doesn’t seem to understand why I’m offering him the feather.
“Huh? Why should I be the one to take it? You hold on to it.”
Hyrince tries to push it away, but I force it into his hand and close his fingers
around it.

“Hey!”
“You keep it, Hyrince.”
“Seriously, why?! Do you even understand how important you are?! It’s way
more important that you stay alive than me! You should be the one to take it!”
Hyrince tries to shove it back to me, but I refuse to take it.

“Don’t worry. I won’t die.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“You said so yourself, right? If I die, it’ll be after you do.”
When I use his own words against him, Hyrince is stunned into silence.

He’s the one who swore that he would protect me as long as he’s alive, after
all.

“I’m not going to die. Since you’re our shield user, your chances of dying are
much higher, right? So it’s better if you take it, Hyrince.”

“You’re unbelievable…” Still lying down, Hyrince clutches his forehead and
groans. “But that’s got nothing to do with this. You take the damn thing
already.”

“No! I! Won’t!”

“You damn idiot!”
We continue to argue back and forth until Hyrince finally passes out from
exhaustion.

You know, Hyrince…
Like I said about Yaana, I want you to be happy, too.



Mm. The bones are pretty tasty today.
Huh? Do I have a fever or something?
Hmm, I guess you’re not wrong about that, exactly.
I’ve been feeling sort of off lately, you see.
Feverish, you might even say.
Ah, but I don’t actually have a fever.
It’s just that my body feels heavy, and I’m kind of listless.
Other symptoms?
Oh, well, I guess I’ve been getting urges lately when I look at boys’ necks.
Do I vant to suck their blood?
Where did you learn that—? No, never mind, I already know the answer.
But yes, I suppose I do have a craving for some blood.
Don’t worry, though—I won’t.
These brats are super annoying, but obviously I’m not going to attack them.
I’ll manage, trust me.

JULIUS, AGE 16: FRIENDS

“Heya. Been a while.”
Two swaying mounds.
Even through her clothes, the movement is obvious.
Watching me like a hawk, Yaana notices my gaze and nudges me sharply with
an elbow.
“Hi, Aurel. It’s been a while.”
I compose myself and greet my fellow apprentice.
Right now, we’re in a certain town in the empire.
“All they told us was to meet with the person in charge here, but I had no idea
it was you, Aurel.”
“Ah-ha-ha, right? I am a mage of the imperial court, y’see, believe it or not.
Heh. Y’never know what the hell’s gonna happen in life, huh?”
Aurel grins, looking nostalgic.
She was originally Master’s caretaker, but he determined that she had
magical potential and made her his second apprentice. Apparently, this led to
her becoming a court mage.
Aurel herself had only ever planned on getting a random job, getting
randomly married, and living a somewhat random life, but things have turned
out very different for her.
“Is it tough work, being a court mage?”
“Damn right it is.” She gives me a dead-eyed look. “All the other mages are
just as pervy as our dumbass master, y’know. And they call me ‘ma’am,’ too!

They’re way older than I am, dammit!”
A group of old men like our master?
Yeah, that definitely sounds tough to deal with.
“Oh, but enough about my gripes. Let’s talk business. The guild master’s

waiting for us, so c’mon with me, please.”
With that, Aurel leads us toward the adventurers’ guild.
“Seems like we’re kinda linked to this guild by fate, huh?”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“You know, the mutated ogre that got away from Master?”
“Ahhh, I see. That was here?”
I’ve heard about this before: the unique ogre that appeared in the empire.
It was far more powerful than any individual ogre should be, and it brought

down many adventurers before our master was sent out to deal with it.
Master even went into battle against it with the world’s strongest

swordsman, yet it still escaped from both of them, which became major news.
However, the ogre hasn’t been seen since it ran off into the Mystic

Mountains, so it’s assumed that it was killed by the ice dragons that live there.
And apparently, this is the very town where that ogre first appeared.
“Ugh. Collecting herbs again?”
“Don’t complain, Kunihiko.”
As we arrive at the adventurers’ guild, two kids around Shun’s age are leaving

the building. The boy’s eyes briefly meet mine as we pass each other.
“Hey, if it ain’t Mr. Gotou. Is the guild master around?”
“Oh, hey there, Aurel. Just a second.”
The man walks into the back of the guild hall with practiced steps.
That part of the guild is off-limits to anyone but employees, and this Mr.

Gotou looks more like an adventurer to me. Is he allowed back there?

“Come on through, he says.”

“Gotcha. All right, this way.”

Once Gotou calls out from farther inside, Aurel heads in, motioning for us to
follow.

Down the hall, we reach the guild master’s office and enter. Awaiting us
inside are Mr. Gotou and an older man who’s probably the guild master.

“We deeply appreciate you coming, Sir Hero,” says the man. “I am the guild
master here.”

“And I’m Gotou, an adventurer in these parts. It’s an honor to meet you.”

“My name is Julius Zagan Analeit, the hero.”

Once our introductions are complete, the guild master gestures for us to take
a seat.

“Well then, let’s get right to it, if you don’t mind. How much have you heard
so far, Sir Hero?”

“Very little.”

We haven’t been given any real details about why we’re here, just that an
unexpectedly troublesome situation has arisen.

“I see. Well, I suppose I’ll explain from the beginning, then.”

With that, the guild master starts explaining the trouble in the town, or rather
in its immediate vicinity.

“This town is very close to the Mystic Mountains. And if you go a bit farther
east, you’ll reach the buffer zone with the demon-realm border. In short, the
demon realm is quite close by.”

This town is at the very border of the empire, so it’s a hairbreadth away from
the demons.

“However, it’s impossible to cross the Mystic Mountains. It isn’t as if there are
no routes around the range at all, but there are tribes that guard those areas. It
might not be quite as dangerous as the open mountains, but it’s still very harsh.
In other words, demons almost never make their way through to here.”

On top of being inhabited by ice dragons, the Mystic Mountains are far too
cold for anyone to regularly traverse.

The only paths around the mountains are inhabited by clans that make their
living hunting demons.

So while it might be close to the demon realm, there’s little fear of demons
invading here.

“But there was an incident a few years ago where one of those clans was
slaughtered by one of the Demon Lord’s subordinates. And therein lies the
problem.”

“Are you saying demons have started attacking?”

“Not exactly. Well, demons have come through, but not to attack us.”

I assumed this meant that the demons were taking this chance to slowly
advance, but it appears I was wrong. But he’s saying a demon did come?

“What is it, then?”

“Demon refugees.”

That was the last thing I expected to hear.

“What? Refugees?”

Sitting next to me, Yaana widens her eyes in confusion.

Incidentally, Aurel is sitting on my other side.

And the sofa isn’t particularly large, so we’re all packed pretty close together.

I know this isn’t the time to worry about such things, but the soft feelings on
either side of me are very…distracting.

No! This is serious. I have to focus.

“There are very few of them who have made it through, but since that clan
was destroyed, the occasional demon has attempted to use that gap to reach us
here. And they all invariably say they’re fleeing the demon realm. In short,
they’ve come here because they can’t live there any longer.”

For a moment, I’m stunned into silence by his explanation.

Demons are the fated enemy of humanity.
They’re a symbol of terror and our constant opponent in an endless war.

So who would expect some of those demons to flee their territory and come
to the land of humans as refugees?

“Erm, so…where are they now?”
“While I do pity them, we certainly can’t let demons enter the human realm,
so we either send them back or dispose of them here.”
So they try to run away only to be met by a cruel fate?

I can’t help feeling bad for them, even if they are demons.
“We’ve interrogated captured demons about the situation in the demon
realm, and it appears things are quite bad over there.”
“How do you mean?”
“It seems that ever since a new Demon Lord took over, the taxes, forced
enlistment, and so on have all been quite harsh.”

I’d already heard through the Word of God religion that there was a new
Demon Lord in charge.

I didn’t know what sort of person that was, of course, but it sounds like they
must be a terrible tyrant.

“So that’s why they’re fleeing? Guess demons don’t have it easy, either,”
Hyrince murmurs.

“But that’s all just the setup. This is where the real problem begins.”

The guild master produces a single piece of paper.
“What’s that?”
“One of the demon men who made it here was carrying this. He said he came
to deliver it to us.”
“May I take a look?”

“It’s written in the demon language…”
“That’s all right. I can read it.”

I’ve studied demon language thoroughly in preparation for a possible war, so I
can converse and read in it without a problem.

And the paper now in my hands contains startling revelations.

To summarize: The new Demon Lord’s rule is so severe that they’re plotting
an uprising.

They want to cooperate with humans to defeat the Demon Lord.
This Demon Lord is incredibly powerful, so they hope to borrow the strength
of the hero for this.
And they want to meet in secret to discuss this possible deal.

“It’s suspicious.”
“Very suspicious.”
“Smells like a trap, all right.”
Hyrince, Jeskan, and Hawkin immediately suspect a trap.

“But it’s true that the demon realm is in such a terrible state that many
demons are trying to flee into our lands, right?” says Yaana. “So maybe they
really are asking for our help?”

The letter contains a time and place for the secret meeting.
It’s set to happen in a deep forest in the buffer zone with the demon realm.
And the appointed time is just a few days from now.

“It definitely sounds like a trap to me,” Hyrince grumbles.
“I know.” I nod.
“Then why are we walking straight into that trap, huh?”
“I guess we’re betting on the tiny chance that it isn’t actually a trap.”

We’re currently in the forest, heading toward the meeting point specified in
the letter.

As far as the authenticity of the letter, we reached the conclusion that it’s
almost certainly a trap.

It’s true that demon refugees have been filtering over the border, but it’s still
absurd to think that they would turn to their bitter rivals, the humans, to help
them start a rebellion—much less the hero, who could be called the mortal
enemy of demons.

Judging by the testimonies of the refugees about the state of the demon
realm, the contents of the letter are believable to a certain degree.

But it’s just too unnatural.

Even if they really are plotting a rebellion because the new Demon Lord is too
cruel a ruler, it’s highly doubtful that they would want to ask for help from their
enemies.

It’s far more natural to assume that the letter is a trap in order to lure out the
hero—me.

So we’re going into this assuming it’s a trap.

Of course, if we know it’s probably a trap, the wisest course of action would
be to ignore the invitation. There’s no need to put ourselves in danger by
showing up.

But we’re risking it anyway, in case the demons really are in serious trouble
and are asking us for help.

That’s probably not the case, but from what we know about the situation on
the other side of the border, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

In the million-to-one chance that it’s a genuine plea for help, if they really
want us to aid them in overthrowing the Demon Lord, then I can’t ignore that.

Besides, it could be a rare opportunity to lessen the animosity between
humans and demons, if only a little.

The enmity between the humans and demons won’t evaporate so easily, but
it could be a chance to take a step toward peace.

I know I’m being overly optimistic.

That’s just a fantasy, and in all likelihood, what’s waiting for us is a trap.

But there is a slim possibility.

And I couldn’t bring myself to throw that chance away.
“Yeah, I figured you’d say as much.”

“If that is your choice, then of course I will follow you.”
“Heh. You’re a softy, but that’s what’s so great about you.”
“If it’s a trap, we’ll deal with it, eh?”
My friends all kindly agreed to come with me.

I feel bad for bringing other people into it, too, but here we are, jumping into
a trap.

“Ahhh, what the hell am I doing in this forest? I am a noble’s daughter, even if
I’m broke as hell, y’know? Where did I go wrong, huh?”

Aurel follows along glumly, muttering complaints.
Aurel and some empire soldiers have joined our usual group today, as well as
a few adventurers, including Mr. Gotou.

Altogether, there are twenty of us.
It’s enough people to proceed cautiously through the forest, keeping an eye
out for traps without getting in one another’s way.
The area designated for the meeting is deep in the forest, without a path to
be found, so we’re cutting through brush and forging our own way there.
“I’d like to give the damn idiot who picked this meeting place a piece of my
mind.”

“Perhaps they were trying to avoid being seen by the clans as well as the
Demon Lord.”

There are multiple clans living throughout the buffer zone, positioned
wherever people might be able to pass through relatively easily.

Maybe an inaccessible place like this was the only way to avoid them.
And they probably had to keep away from the eyes of the Demon Lord, too.

“Huh?!”
I whirl around.

“Wh-what’s the matter?” Yaana asks nervously.
I don’t answer, staring into the depths of the forest.
But…there’s nothing there?
“Julius, what’s up?”
Noticing my strange behavior, Hyrince cautiously approaches.
Jeskan and Hawkin pull out their weapons and get into battle-ready
formation.
“I felt like someone was watching us.”
The others all follow my gaze, peering into the darkness.
“…Ain’t nobody there.”
Hawkin has the sharpest senses of all of us.
“…Maybe I just imagined it?”
“Don’t be so sure,” Jeskan warns. “Could be someone was sneaking around
and ran away when you noticed them.”
“We know this could be a trap. It doesn’t hurt to be on the lookout for an
ambush.”
“Right.”
We proceed more cautiously, keeping a close watch on our surroundings.
All conversation falls silent as we tensely make our way to the meeting place.
When we arrive, two people are there waiting for us.
One is a young boy and the other a woman.
A bewitching demon woman, wearing skimpy clothing that reveals her very
ample bosom.
They’re even bigger than Aurel’s?!
“Glad you could make it!”
The female demon grins triumphantly and steps closer.
As I stand there frozen, she grabs my hand.

That was a failure on my part, I think.
My guard dropped while I was looking at her chest, even if it was only for a
second.

It’s in this moment that I recall what Jeskan said before about how I should
build up a resistance to sexual provocations.

And that there are demons who specialize in that sort of thing.
“Guh?!”
Pain ripples through my body.

Immediately, I shake off the woman’s hand.
Is this Poison Hand, the skill that’s popular with assassins?!
But if it can break through my resistances and cause this much damage, it’s no
ordinary Poison Hand!
It could be the advanced skill Poison Attack or maybe even its evolved form,
Deadly Poison Attack?!

“You’re jumping us already?!”
Hyrince shoves his way between the female demon and me.
At the same time, the young male demon unleashes a magic spell.
Aurel counters it with a Fireball, and the spells cancel each other out.

“You think you can compete with MY magic?!” the boy demon shouts in
surprise.

As if on cue, a large group of armed men emerges from the thicket and
charges at us.

“Dammit! I knew it was a trap!”
“Attack! Don’t let them get away!”

Jeskan readies his weapon, and the female demon shouts orders to the
hidden soldiers.

We would have noticed such a large ambush before long—which is exactly
why they’re making the first move, to crush us before we get the chance to run.

“Hiyah!”
I cut down the first demon soldier who charges me.

Blood sprays through the air, and the soldier behind him stops as if rooted to
the spot.

“Didn’t you want to defeat the Demon Lord?!”
I knew they were lying from the beginning, but I can’t help calling out to them
anyway.
“As if we’d ever stand a chance!”

The response catches me by surprise.
The female demon isn’t mocking me for being fooled or ignoring me—she’s
shouting back, as if in frustration at their hopeless situation.
“We have no choice but to obey! There’s no turning back for us now!”
The female demon produces a whip and cracks it in the air.

Whips have a wide range of attack, but they’re not as powerful as they look. If
she combines it with Poison Attack, though, it becomes a lethal weapon that
can poison anything it touches.

Hyrince blocks the oncoming whip with his shield.
“You really think these guys can be reasoned with?!”
He makes no effort to hide his irritation.

We were on guard for a trap, but we still didn’t expect to be attacked so
suddenly.

…No, I shouldn’t make excuses.
I knew it was a trap, but I still carelessly let my guard down and approached
the female demon, letting her get the upper hand.
That just means I have to make up for that blunder right away!

“Take this!”
I slash at one attacking soldier with my sword, then bring down another with
a Fireball spell.

Then I loose a Light Sphere at the female demon.
“Gah?!”

She tries to deflect it with her whip, then grunts in surprise as the spell sends
her whip flying and hurts her hand.

Clutching the injury, she takes a step back, and several demon soldiers move
between us to shield her.

I couldn’t finish her off…
“There’s too many of them. Julius is in trouble… Tch! Retreat!”

As soon as he sees my condition, Hyrince calls for a retreat.
I took a lot of poison in that first attack. To be honest, I’m in serious pain.
Besides, we’re vastly outnumbered, so our chances of winning this fight are
slim.
“Jeskan! Give Julius a hand!”

“You got it! Come on, Julius!”
Jeskan supports me with his shoulder.
“Don’t let them escape! We’ve got to bring them down here and now!”
The female demon shrieks at her men, still clutching her wounded hand, and
they charge after us.

The young male demon keeps shooting magic at us, but Aurel has been
consistently countering it.

Hawkin tosses one of his ace-in-the-hole magic items, stopping their charge.
On top of that, Mr. Gotou swings his sword, and lightning crashes down on the
enemy.

Amazing! So he has a lightning magic sword?!
“Withdraw! Now!”

Hyrince takes the lead, urging everyone to flee.
I start running as best I can with Jeskan’s support, while Yaana runs alongside
me, using Healing Magic to cure the poison.

With my last strength, I fire a wide-range Light Magic spell behind us.
It’s not as powerful as Holy Light Magic, but unfortunately, I haven’t learned a
wide-range Holy Light Magic spell yet at my skill level. Even if I did know one,
I’m not sure if I’d be able to use it properly in this situation.

“Dammit!”
Unable to wait and see if my spell did damage, I keep moving forward as
Jeskan holds me up.
Yaana’s magic seems to have rid me of most of the poison, but I haven’t
regained the health I lost.
As Yaana keeps casting Healing Magic on me while we run, my body starts to
recover, but I can tell that I won’t be able to fight any longer.

“Keep going! We’re getting away!”
“Take this!”
I hear Hyrince shout from behind me, followed by Mr. Gotou’s voice even
farther back, accompanied by a thunderous rumble.
A flash of light follows behind us, then the belated sound of Mr. Gotou’s
magic sword attack ripping through the air.

“That’s it! Keep running!”
Hyrince is bringing up the rear, but his voice sounds relatively close, so we
must be succeeding in shaking off the enemy.
But it’s still too soon to let our guards down.
I keep hobbling forward, hanging on to Jeskan for support.

But then…
“Huh?”
Maybe it was just my imagination.
I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

But when I turn around, there’s nothing there but trees.
“What’s wrong?!”

“Sorry. It’s nothing.”

Jeskan casts me a glance, but I must have been seeing things.

There’s no time to dwell on it right now, so I tell myself I imagined it and keep
on running.

How could there be a bunch of dead men out in the woods strung up in white
thread like grotesque decorations?

And a pure-white girl standing amid it all?

A vision like that doesn’t make any sense.

I must have been hallucinating because of the poison.

Yes, I’m sure of it.

Thus, we managed to escape with our tails between our legs.

Fortunately, not a single person was lost, and I recovered quickly thanks to
Yaana’s healing.

Still, I have to admit it was a disaster.

“I’m sorry, everyone. I knew it was most likely a trap, but I still wasn’t on my
guard enough.”

“It’s fine,” Hyrince reassures me. “They were really well prepared. We were
ready for a trap, but when we showed up to talk and they immediately attacked
us with poison, it was tough to react right away.”

“But if I’d been more careful, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. And on top
of that, I slowed you all down afterward. I should be ashamed of myself as the
hero.”

“Oh, come on. It’s our job as your friends to back you up when that happens,
right?”

Jeskan pats me on the shoulder.

“But I made Hawkin use up a valuable magic item, too…”

“Those’re made to be used, y’know? Ain’t no point dyin’ to conserve ’em.”
Hawkin smiles.

“And, Yaana, you had to heal me…”
“It’s the saint’s job to support the hero. I simply carried out my natural role.”
If anything, Yaana looks happy she was able to help.
“You really saved us, Mr. Gotou.”
“Nah, it’s nothin’. If anything, thank this sword, not me.”
Despite Mr. Gotou’s modesty, I don’t think we would have all gotten away
unscathed if it wasn’t for him and his sword.
Like Hawkin always says, tools are part of a person’s strength.
“Thank you, too, Aurel. If you hadn’t fended off that boy who seemed to be
one of the leaders, we might’ve been in serious danger.”
“Ahhh, it’s no biggie. Honestly, running away after was the bigger pain.”
It’s so typical of Aurel that I can’t help chuckling.
Yaana mutters something about “only because of those absurdly large bits of
yours…!” but I’ll pretend not to hear her…although it probably is hard to run
with a chest like that.
In an effort not to look at the area in question, I glance around at everyone’s
faces instead.
Not a single one of them looks angry with me.
If anything, that makes it worse.
“…Why do I have to be so weak? Argh. I can’t stand it!”
Instinctively, I clutch my scarf as tightly as I can.
I really am weak, like Master said.
No matter how hard I try, nothing ever seems to go right.
I’m not strong enough to make it happen!
I can’t help but be frustrated and ashamed.
“Julius…”
Hyrince stands up and walks over to me.

Then he brings his fist down on my head.

“You damn moron!”

“Ow?!”

As I flinch and look up, Hyrince stares straight into my eyes.

“Listen, why do you always try to do everything on your own? Why do you put
all the responsibility on your own shoulders?”

“Hyrince is right. We’re your friends, aren’t we? That means we’re supposed
to rely on one another. If one of us makes a mistake, another one of us just has
to step in and help. I don’t want you to save me all the time—I want us to save
each other.”

“Exactly. Do you remember the promise we made? I’m supposed to see that
hopeful world of yours by your side, right, Sir Hero? By your side—not behind
you. Or do you think I’m unworthy to fight beside you?”

“I am older than ya, too, y’know. You oughta try relyin’ on your elders more,
hey?”

“You guys…”

Hyrince, Yaana, Jeskan, and Hawkin.

They’re my friends and comrades.

“If you can’t do it on your own, we’ll just have to do it together, right? Even if
you’re not strong enough alone, we’ll be strong enough as a team. Take what
just happened. You might not’ve stood a chance if you were alone, but we were
with you. That’s why we all made it back alive. You’ve got friends who want to
fight at your side, see? So try to depend on us more.”

Hyrince puts a hand on my shoulder.

I see… So even if I am weak, I have friends who will back me up.

“I’m…weak.”

That truth hasn’t changed.

On my own, I can barely do anything at all.

But if I’m with these trustworthy companions of mine, we can do so much
more.

“But you’ll stay by my side anyway?”
““““Of course.””””
The four of them all respond in unison.
As long as they’re around, I’m sure I can accept my own weakness and keep
moving forward.
Now I finally understand that.
“Awww, that was hella sweet.”
“Aurel, come on—read the room.”

AN UNOPPOSABLE FORCE

Crunch. Crunch.
I shouldn’t be able to hear it anymore.
But the wet, crunching sound keeps clinging to my ears.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, over and over.
“We blew it!”
I can’t help yelling in frustration.
Our strategy was so haphazard that we were hoping to snag an empire leader
or two, but instead we managed to land the hero, the biggest catch of all.
But then we let him slip right through our fingers!
If we’d succeeded, it would’ve been a big enough achievement to put all our
trespasses behind us!
“Sanatoria, calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down?! And how could you let a snot-nosed girl
like that slow you down, Huey?!”
“I did the best I could! Besides, I didn’t see you doing a single thing after that
first surprise attack!”
Shouting at each other lets off some of the heat of our anger, and we both
cool down a little.
“…I’m sorry. I went too far.”
“No, I got overly heated, too.”
We fall silent for a moment.

“So what are we going to do now?”

“…We’ll just have to find another way to earn some points. We’ve got no
other choice.”

That’s right: We’re trying to curry favor and get ourselves in the Demon Lord’s
good graces.

Huey and I are actually commanders of the demon army.

We were born into good families and blessed with natural talents, and we put
all that to work to earn our positions.

It hasn’t exactly been a life of luxury, since the entire demon race is going
through hard times, but we were luckier than the majority and satisfied with
our lot.

But that all changed when the new Demon Lord appeared.

She wants to start up the war against humans again, no matter what it takes.

This is no joke. The demon race has already suffered so much from the
incessant war that we can barely even get by as it is, you know.

We don’t have the resources for another conflict, and whether we win or
lose, the losses will be too great.

Our already bad situation is sure to get even worse.

I won’t claim I did it for noble reasons like the sake of our race, like Balto or
Agner.

I just didn’t want to go to war or struggle any harder just to make ends meet.

That’s why Huey and I agreed to our fellow commander Nereo’s plan.

Little did we know that we were walking straight to our own doom.

We didn’t want much—only to wipe out that awful Demon Lord.

One of the commanders, Warkis, took up the banner of revolution against the
Demon Lord.

The rest of us aided him in secret, and when Warkis’s army marched on the
capital, we planned to join him and declare our open rebellion.

Between Warkis’s revolutionary army and our own troops, we’d be able to
outnumber the capital guards and defeat the Demon Lord.

At least, that was the plan.

But when push came to shove, the Demon Lord and her army sniffed out the
rebellion and crushed it before Mr. Warkis could even finish gathering soldiers
for the army.

And then Warkis committed suicide right before our eyes rather than be
executed.

At the time, I thought I was still safe. I felt bad about Warkis, but I didn’t think
his death could possibly lead to my own.

But immediately after it happened, Agner gave us a warning, and we realized
we were in far deeper trouble than we thought.

“I ask only that you be aware that you have been knowingly let off the hook.
That Her Majesty the Demon Lord already has a knife to all your throats. Be
assured that there will be no second chances if you make any strange moves
again. The Demon Lord is not so benevolent as to look after those she does not
need.”

Agner is most likely the smartest person I know.

If he said the Demon Lord knew about us, then he must be correct.

That certainly put me on my toes.

And yet, even then, I still didn’t understand just how terrifying the Demon
Lord is.

Until I heard that crunching sound.

“I’m replacing the Ninth Army Commander.”

The Demon Lord had summoned Huey; the Ninth Army Commander, Nereo;
and me.

The Ninth Army currently exists only in name, with no actual troops.

Its only member is the commander, so it’s not much of an actual position.

But the Demon Lord announced she was going to form a proper Ninth Army

and change the commander.

“Black here will be taking over the Ninth. Play nice.”

She introduced a man I’d never seen before, clad in black armor from head to
toe.

A ridiculous outfit and a name to match. Obviously it must be a fake identity.

No doubt, this person is a friend of the Demon Lord’s, who’s getting the job
thanks to nepotism.

But I did detect an aura of strength from the man.

It made sense for him to replace Nereo, who’s better suited to internal
administration.

And it’s logical that the Demon Lord would want to have commanders she
knows and trusts.

…I wasn’t nearly as afraid as I should have been.

I should have realized something was wrong when she summoned just the
three of us.

“Which means we won’t be needing the current Ninth Army Commander
anymore.”

And that’s when things went to hell.

A wet, crunching sound filled the room.

Nereo’s head vanished from his neck.

His headless body collapsed to the floor before he could even react.

Blood gushed from his neck with the final pulses of his heart, staining the
floor red.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

With each successive crunching sound, another piece of Nereo’s body
disappeared.

Finally, the Demon Lord licked her lips, and the blood seeping into the floor
was gone without a trace.

As if nothing had ever been there to begin with.
I thought I must be dreaming.

I hoped I was just dreaming.
But it was reality.
“Now, who will I need to replace next?”
The Demon Lord looked at us with a grin.

Ever since that day, the wet, crunching sound has clung to my ears.
It won’t go away any more than the terror that accompanies it.
“Where’s the other squad?”
“They haven’t come back. We suspect they’ve been caught.”

“How odd.”
We sent a separate squad to go around and position themselves to cut off the
hero’s escape route.
If they were able to pin the hero and his party, we’d be able to catch up to
them and attack from both sides.
How could our other squad have been wiped out before we even reached
them?

“Perhaps they ran into each other while the hero was on his way here?”
As soon as I say it, I shake my head.
If the humans had encountered the other squad before they got here, surely
they would’ve been more on their guard. Since my surprise attack succeeded,
that mustn’t be the case.
After our fight, the hero and the other humans wouldn’t have been able to
fight the other squad.

So by that logic, did our men run into a demon-hunting clan or something by
chance and get wiped out before they ever encountered the hero?

“Either way, it’d be dangerous to stay here any longer.”

Since the humans escaped, it’s entirely possible that they’ll send a big army
back after us.

And if the other squad encountered a clan, they might attack us, too.

At any rate, we’d better withdraw.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“Are your hand and leg all right?”

“…No, not really. But I can still walk, so let’s hold off on the healing until we
get to a safe place.”

My hand got broken in our fight with the hero and his little friends, and that
last spell of the hero’s injured my right leg.

It’s not just me, either; the wide-range Light Magic attack exploded at our
soldiers’ feet, causing considerable casualties.

If it wasn’t for that attack, we might’ve been able to chase them more
effectively, but with so many of our soldiers unable to keep up on their
wounded legs, we couldn’t follow the fleeing hero for long.

They got us good, all right.

“…What should we do now?”

Huey’s expression wavers anxiously.

“…Let’s just focus on getting away for the time being.”

I’m worried, too, of course.

We missed our big chance to take down the hero and failed to gain any
merits, so now we’ll have to find some other way to get into the Demon Lord’s
good graces.

Since she has her eye on us, we have no choice but to obey her every
command and do whatever it takes to avoid being killed.

“Fortunately, since we carried out this plan in absolute secrecy, the Demon
Lord won’t find out that we’ve failed. We didn’t gain anything, but we didn’t
lose anything, either. Let’s just call it a wash.”

“Hmm. So getting soldiers killed for fun doesn’t count as a loss? Iiiinteresting.”
It can’t be. How could I be hearing that voice right now?
At once, my entire body is paralyzed with fear.
The only movement I can manage is the occasional tremble.
Finally, praying that I was hearing things, I slowly turn around. If I move any
faster, I’m afraid my injured leg will give out.
Once I turn, I see the last person I ever want to see, especially right now.
A seemingly young girl, kicking back in a luxurious chair that looks very out of
place deep in the woods.
Though she appears too young to even be called a woman, on the inside,
she’s an unknowable monster.
It’s the person we fear most: the Demon Lord.
“But…how?”
What is she doing here?
How did she find out? When and how did she get here?
I have so many questions and no answers.
All I know is that this might be the end.
“Hee-hee. I heard from White that you guys were up to something
interesting, so I decided to come observe, that’s all.”
The Demon Lord smiles innocuously.
But I can tell that her eyes aren’t smiling.
As soon as I heard the name “White,” though, I understood everything.
White is a woman the Demon Lord brought in from somewhere, along with
Black.
After the Demon Lord put Black in charge of the Ninth Army, she made White
the Tenth Army Commander.
Black brought in the soldiers of the new Ninth Army, so I don’t know who they

are, but the new Tenth Army is even more mysterious.

Unlike the Ninth Army, the names on the Tenth Army list are people with real
identities, but they all wear matching white clothes and look like completely
different people from before.

There are rumors they’ve been brainwashed or hypnotized, which would be
funny if it didn’t seem like a terrifyingly real possibility.

And they all seem to be spies.

In other words, White is the Demon Lord’s eyes and ears.

So the Demon Lord has been monitoring our actions through White…

“Our deepest apologies!”

While I stand there half-resigned to our fate, Huey bows deeply and starts
apologizing.

“We had the hero backed into a corner, but he got away at the last moment,
and we lost valuable soldiers in the process. I am truly sorry.”

He earnestly acknowledges our failure, then goes even further.

“Great Demon Lord, Lady Sanatoria was really only helping me at my
insistence. The Sixth Army initiated this strategy, so I will take full
responsibility.”

Huey looks like a child, yet here he is trying to act all cool and mature.

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m not really mad about this or anything.”

As Huey tries to take the blame, fully expecting his own death, the Demon
Lord laughs it off carelessly.

Upon hearing this, Huey quickly raises his head.

It’s incredibly cold here near the Mystic Mountains, yet his face is covered in a
sheen of sweat.

I guess it’s true that when people experience fear beyond their limits, they
really do break out in a cold sweat.

But I would never mock him for this, because I’m in a similar state.

“Sure, it’s annoying that you acted on your own, but whatever little pranks
you get up to don’t really matter much in the long run.”

She’s basically calling us insignificant, but instead of the humiliation I might
normally feel, most of me is just relieved.

I’d rather her think of us as unimportant than see us as a hindrance.

I’ve heard that the old commander of the Ninth Army, Nereo, tried to
dethrone the Demon Lord in secret even after Warkis’s rebel army was
quashed.

He got the Demon Lord’s chef and an attendant on his side, and they tried to
poison her.

This is all hearsay, but according to the rumors, the Demon Lord calmly ate
the entire poisoned plate before saying this: “Gross! Whoever made this
disgusting meal is fired!”

The chef’s head rolled the very next day—literally—along with the attendant
who had conspired with them.

And Nereo, who was the mastermind behind it, was executed right in front of
us.

I can still hear that crunching, smacking sound in my ears.

My appetite has been all but nonexistent ever since. The sound of my own
chewing reminds me too much of that day.

I don’t fully understand what happened, but one thing is for certain: Nereo
was erased from this world by some horrible unknown force.

Since witnessing that, I now understand why Balto and Agner are so willing to
obey the Demon Lord without question.

Both of them are deeply concerned for the future of the demon race, so it
was strange that they would obey the Demon Lord, who seems hell-bent on
destroying it.

But instead of realizing why, we let ourselves be fooled by the Demon Lord’s
youthful appearance, and we woke a sleeping dragon.

Those two must have already known that it’s impossible to defy the Demon
Lord.

Although it would’ve been nice of them to clue in the rest of us!

…No, I suppose Balto did try. Every time we met, he warned me not to
attempt to rebel against her. I’m the one who let that fall on deaf ears.

I should’ve taken his warning more seriously.
I know there’s no point dwelling on it now, but I can’t help wishing I could
turn back time and do things over again.
“Besides, you’ve already been punished for going behind my back.”

The Demon Lord’s words drag me harshly back to reality.
We’ve already been punished…?
What does that mean?
We’re physically unharmed. Does that mean she did something else to us?

Beside me, Huey turns pale.
He has a younger brother.
Could she have done something to our families?!
My imagination starts to run wild.

“Y’know those guys you were saying haven’t come back? That’s ’cause I wiped
’em out already.”

Though I hate to admit it, I feel a bit of relief on hearing that.
I feel bad for those soldiers, but I wouldn’t have put it past the Demon Lord to
do something far worse.
“So you don’t need to apologize for losing valuable men, get it? I’m the one
who did it in the first place.”

Far from looking ashamed, the Demon Lord sticks out her tongue cutely, like a
mischievous child.

How can she act like that when she’s just massacred her own people?

Despite her cutesy actions, I can feel my blood running cold with fear of the
Demon Lord.

And at the same time, something seems off.

Why would she wipe out that squad in the first place? It seems like an oddly
indirect punishment.

Yes, from a military perspective, having those troops wiped out is a significant
loss. But it doesn’t punish Huey or me personally in any real way.

Does that mean she had a different goal, and punishing us was just an
excuse?

Why would the Demon Lord need to destroy that squad?

“Erm, may I ask…why those soldiers…?”

The soldiers in the other squad were Huey’s men from the Sixth Army, so I’m
not surprised that he would have questions, but I’m still strangely impressed
that he managed to speak up.

Maybe I’m getting emotional from the relief that we won’t be punished any
further?

“Sure. It’d be a pain for me if the hero died right now, so I had to get in your
way a teensy bit.”

Instead of growing angry as I feared, the Demon Lord answers calmly.

But I can’t help being frustrated by her words.

“What?! But we set a trap to defeat the hero for you!”

Huey, you idiot!

What possessed you to defy the Demon Lord when she didn’t seem too angry
with us?!

“Yeah, see, this is why I don’t want you doing stuff like this without
permission. Although I guess we never really put out a notice not to go after the
hero, so we’ll call this one even, yeah? My bad.”

“I don’t believe it… So my troops died for such an arbitrary reason…?”

Huey hangs his head in disbelief.
Of course. To me they’re just random soldiers, but Huey knew them as his
subordinates.
I can’t blame him for being shocked.
“Why don’t you want the hero to be defeated?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
Huey was probably hoping to at least find out why his men had to die, but the
Demon Lord curtly shuts him down.
“But…that’s…”
Huey glances at the Demon Lord’s expression, then swallows the rest of his
words.
I’m sure that explanation didn’t comfort him at all, but if he keeps pushing the
Demon Lord for more information, her mood might turn sour.
He has no choice but to accept it, even if it doesn’t make sense.
I inwardly sigh with relief when Huey backs down.
“This might not be much comfort to you, but they were fine soldiers.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
I’m surprised the Demon Lord complimented the squad like that.
She seems to think of us all as nothing but expendable pawns, so I definitely
wasn’t expecting her to comfort Huey like that.
“They grew up nice and strong, and their deaths will make great fertilizer for
the world. Yep. Some fine soldiers right there.”
…Of course.
She really doesn’t see us as people at all.
No wonder she said it might not be much comfort.
Huey clenches his fist.
“Hmm? You mad? Are you mad at me now?”

As the Demon Lord taunts him jokingly, I can see Huey gritting his teeth.

“Wait, calm down!” I hiss at him quietly.

It’s all well and good if he wants to defy the Demon Lord and get himself
killed, but not if I’m mixed up in it.

“Hey, guys. Did you know I came here all alone?”

The Demon Lord grins at us.

Now that she mentions it, I hadn’t noticed in the shock of her sudden
appearance, but there’s no one else here with the Demon Lord—not even any
guards.

It’s just her and me, Huey, and the soldiers from the Sixth Army, although
most of them were injured in the battle with the hero.

Which means we have her outnumbered.

“What do you wanna do?”

The Demon Lord tilts her head to the side inquiringly.

This certainly is a favorable situation, in theory.

The Demon Lord is more powerful than we can comprehend, but if she’s on
her own, we might be able to overcome her.

…As if I would ever entertain such a fleeting hope.

“A hilarious joke, Your Majesty.”

I grab Huey’s sleeve tightly while giving the Demon Lord my best ingratiating
smile.

“I’m sure the soldiers would be proud to hear such high praise from the great
Demon Lord. How could we possibly be angry? I should wish the same honor for
myself one day.”

No doubt she can see right through my bald-faced lies, but I have no choice
but to try to smooth things over like this.

The Demon Lord’s mouth quirks into a smile, so it seems like my strategy
worked for now.

“Oh, good. Well, I look forward to seeing your work, then.”
Does that mean she wants me to die and serve as “fertilizer for the world” like
she said about those soldiers? Because if so, I’d rather not deliver on that.

“Of course.”
But naturally, I have to agree to it out loud.
“Okay, White, let’s head home.”
The Demon Lord turns around.

There’s a girl standing directly behind her, who’s been there since who-
knows-when.

A girl who’s inhuman in a different way from the Demon Lord, her entire body
white, as if all color has been bleached away.

She’s so out of place in her surroundings that she looks like she stepped from
a painting.

“All righty, we’re gonna go back. No more funny business without my
permission, ’kay?”

Or else I’ll eat you.
With that, the Demon Lord and the girl in white disappear.
I wait a long while after their disappearance, then sink to the ground.
Only now do I finally feel the stinging pain from my wounded hand and leg.

But the reason I can’t stand any longer has more to do with willpower than
my injuries.

“All alone, indeed. Of course she had someone else with her.”
I didn’t even notice her lurking there.
But naturally, even if the Demon Lord really had been alone, I would’ve done
the same thing.

We can’t beat the Demon Lord.
No one can.

If we stood a chance, she wouldn’t have shown up so casually and offered a
challenge like that.

She was testing us.
What if we’d really tried to take her down?
I’m sure none of us would be alive by now.
The realization sets my body trembling.
It’s cold.
So very, very cold, all the way down to my bones.
I’m terrified.
The only option we have left is total obedience to the Demon Lord, and even
then, I don’t know for sure if we’ll survive.
The Demon Lord seems to be hoping we’ll die, after all.
We can’t rebel against her.
We’re not strong enough. We’d simply die.
But even if we don’t, we might very well die anyway.
“What are we supposed to do?!”
I choke the words out loud despite myself.
“Sanatoria. For now…for now, let’s just get going.”
Huey doesn’t seem to have an answer, either.
Instead, he takes my hand and pulls me up, then puts his arm around my
waist to help me walk.
As we move, my thoughts churn.
There’s one force that no living thing can oppose: death.
Anything that lives must one day die.
And to me, the Demon Lord seems like an incarnation of death itself.

Aah! Today’s fresh blood is as tasty as ever!
You know what they say. It’s unhealthy to repress your urges!
Huh? Too sudden?
What do you mean?
Awww, what? Don’t drink blood?
But I waaant to.
Besides, whenever I drink a boy’s blood, he looks super happy about it!
I get to drink blood, and he gets to enjoy it.
That’s what you call a win-win situation!
The boys are starting to worship me a little, but that’s not my fault.
Hmm? The class rep girl?
I guess Mr. Goody Two-shoes broke off their engagement and chased her out
of the academy a while ago.
Serves her right!
Better yet, the other girls have all been on their best behavior ever since!
It’s Sophia’s time to shine!
Hmm?
A visitor at this hour…? Oh, it’s White.
What’s going on?
Waaaaah.

Master, I’m sorry. I was wrong.
Gaaah!
What is this?!
Did you curse me so I’m stuck calling you Master?
And if I disobey you, the curse forces me to sit?!
That’s horrible!
What did I do wrong?!
Huh? I should figure it out myself?
…I can’t think of a single thing!
Geh!
Hey, no need to get violent!
Hey, wait! Wha—?!
Stop!
Aaaaah!
Master, I’m sorry!
Just put me down!
You can’t tie me to the ceiling in the nude!
We’ll end up getting an R rating!
Huh?
Wait, why does it look like you’re ready to leave?
What? Huh?
Are you going to leave me here like this?!
You’ve got to be joking, right?
Wait! WAIT!
I’m sorry; please forgive me; let me dooown!
At least allow me to put on some clothes!

JULIUS, AGE 17: ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Soon, the whole world learned that I’d been attacked by demons.
The demon race was ending its long silence and going on the offensive.
Rumors spread like wildfire, and the empire began tightening its security at
the border.
I started preparing myself so I’d be ready to run into battle at a moment’s
notice, too.
But the demons made no further movements, and time quietly went on.
“It’s the hero!”
“Sir Hero is here!”
The excitement of the adventurers who came to greet me goes to show how
desperate they are.
We’ve arrived in a wasteland near a certain village, where a simple base has
been built.
Really, it’s just a few tents with virtually no defenses, so it can hardly be called
a base at all.
The adventurers are using this modest outpost to fend off a monster invasion.
“Now we’ll be able to beat that earth specter!”
An earth specter is an earth-attribute variation of the spirit race of monsters,
which is said to be nearly as dangerous as dragons.
The way these creatures live is very different from normal monsters. In fact,
some say it’s not even clear if they’re living things at all.

They appear out of nowhere and produce small spirits, their underlings.

Then the small spirits gradually spread throughout the area, while the parent
specter stays in place and keeps spawning more. Meanwhile, the unleashed
minor spirits will start to attack any living creature they encounter.

This cycle continues indefinitely unless the specter is defeated.

On top of that, small spirits are considered C rank as soon as they’re born, a
danger level at which most average adventurers would form a party to defeat
an individual monster.

And while even one small spirit requires that level of countermeasures, a
specter can produce about ten small spirits a day.

If left alone for more than a week, that could easily be a big enough force to
devour an entire town.

Thus, specters have to be defeated by adventurers or soldiers as soon as
they’re discovered.

Fortunately, since they produce so many small spirits, they’re not hard to find.
If anyone stumbles upon a small spirit, the parent is bound to be not too far
away.

And for some reason, spirit monsters only appear in areas close to civilization.

If they started producing small spirits in an area far removed from any
settlements, they might create a number of small spirits without being noticed,
until it would be near impossible to defeat them, but that has never happened
in recorded history.

Instead, they announce themselves as if asking to be found.

It’s not known how spirit monsters are born, and they have certain features
that make them seem like nonliving things, such as not needing to eat or sleep.
Some people even believe that they’re tests from the gods.

But I don’t really care about the truth behind them.

As long as spirits are monsters that cause harm to people, I have only one
course of action.

“What’s the earth specter doing now?”

“It would be faster to show you than to explain. Come this way.”

The person in charge here, a general from this nation who also participated in
the anti-human-trafficking force, leads me outside the tent.

“Over there.”

He points at a place so distant that it’s barely a speck to the naked eye.

The earth specter is surrounded by countless small spirits.

It looks like a strange figure made out of rocks and dirt, like something
inhuman making a creepy attempt to imitate one.

And it’s surrounded by a swarm of small spirits—smaller than the parent but
still vaguely humanoid.

However, since these ones are scrabbling around on all four thin limbs like
insect legs, they look like an even more disturbing imitation of humanity.

At a glance, there are at least thirty.

“There’s quite a lot of them.”

“We’ve been fighting to try and reduce their numbers, but we can barely keep
them from increasing. The soldiers and adventurers are getting exhausted, so it
might be difficult to even keep that much up before long.”

The general turns back toward the tent and heaves a sigh.

The tents are full of injured soldiers and warriors or others who are taking
turns resting.

They all look visibly drained, and even the general himself looks far more
haggard than when I last saw him.

The battle against the spirit will continue until the parent spirit is defeated,
and it keeps producing small spirits all the while.

But the spirit itself is around the same danger level as a dragon: rank S.

This has to do in part with the small spirits that it continuously produces, but
even on its own, the monster is not an enemy that can be taken down easily.

“Time is of the essence when fighting a spirit. Let’s move out to defeat it right
away.”

There are adventurers and soldiers fighting the small spirits even now.

But no matter how many they defeat, the parent spirit will keep making more
unless it’s defeated itself.

The general and his forces are getting more and more exhausted, but the
enemy can keep producing small spirits indefinitely.

“But you’ve just arrived, Sir Hero. Are you not tired?”

He suggests that we should rest first, since we arrived so late at night, but I
shake my head.

“I’m sure you and the other people here are far more exhausted than I am
from fighting for so long. It wouldn’t be right for us to rest while you continue
to battle. Right, everyone?”

I turn to the rest of my group.

“Fine by me.”

“Of course!”

Hyrince and Yaana respond at once, and Jeskan and Hawkin nod mutely in
agreement.

“All right, then let’s go!”

Everyone else nods firmly.

“General, please gather anyone who can still fight. We’ll charge in with
everything we can muster.”

“Understood!”

The fire returns to the haggard general’s eyes.

I watch as he rushes over to the tents, then I head out toward the earth
specter with my friends, helping others who are fighting small spirits along the
way.

“Sir Hero?”

“It’s the hero!”
“Hooray! Hooray!”
“Now we can win for sure!”
The people who were fighting the small spirits fall in step behind us.
They’re deeply exhausted, yet they follow us with firm footsteps.
Now that the hero has joined the fight, they finally see a chance to win this
endless battle.
That restores their fighting spirit.
“Everyone! I’m here! We’re going to win this battle!”
I shout encouragement in order to raise their morale even further.
A chorus of war cries echoes through the wasteland.
I defeat one of the small spirits with a single spell.
Small spirits are C rank, so they’d pose a fair challenge to an ordinary
adventurer, but my stats as the hero make it easy to defeat them.
And as I defeat more spirits along the way, the soldiers and adventurers who
were busy fighting them all join us.
By now, we’ve almost reached the earth specter.
It seemed normal from the camp, but now that we’ve gotten close, I can see
that it’s easily three times the size of a human.
And there’s a ring of small spirits protecting it.
“We’ll deal with the earth specter! The rest of you, draw off the small spirits
around it, but don’t take on more than you can handle!”
I start weaving a spell as I call out orders.
Of all the monsters I’ve fought, the earth specter is second in danger ranking
only to the likes of the phoenix and the Nightmare of the Labyrinth.
I can’t hold back!
“Here we go!”